Congrats on the win. You guys completely owned us from the start. The only thing we did good against you guys was containing Turner and that I am surprised by. You guys whopped us like a red headed step child. Good game and good luck to you all rest of the season. You guys got a bright future.

I think our defense is dependent on John Abraham. If we keep him fresh and healthy we have a shot. Because our offense will be good, and Roddy White and Michael Turner won't have many quiet games like yesterday. It is nice to see Gonzalez and Ryan on the same page already. Gonzalez is a QB's best friend, what he did for Trent Green and even Tyler Thigpen was amazing.

I think our defense is dependent on John Abraham. If we keep him fresh and healthy we have a shot. Because our offense will be good, and Roddy White and Michael Turner won't have many quiet games like yesterday. It is nice to see Gonzalez and Ryan on the same page already. Gonzalez is a QB's best friend, what he did for Trent Green and even Tyler Thigpen was amazing.

After watching the defense (only one game) I feel like we might not be as dependent on john abraham as we all thought. We got very good pass rushing from inside and outside of the d-line and from people not named john abraham. We forced 4 turnovers and I don't believe he played a part in any of those, correct me if im wrong.

Obviously we're not as good without him, but Im saying even if he does end up going down, we will not crumble.

After watching the defense (only one game) I feel like we might not be as dependent on john abraham as we all thought. We got very good pass rushing from inside and outside of the d-line and from people not named john abraham. We forced 4 turnovers and I don't believe he played a part in any of those, correct me if im wrong.

Obviously we're not as good without him, but Im saying even if he does end up going down, we will not crumble.

It alters everything about the opposing offense. Teams don't like seven step drops with Abe lined up for the other team. Teams don't like being predictable with Abe on the field. Teams have to scheme protection often times towards ABe.

The others may be good, but noone fears them. Protection would be more balanced, and teams would be more willing to try downfield passing.

The defense would be very down without Abe. Not to mention all of the other guys are situational or rotational guys. Abe, while he is mainly on the field passing downs, is the only DE who is well rounded enough to play all game. We don't have another concrete starter.

I finally watched the game after going camping for the weekend (was in the dark until I paid 7.99 for the NFL.com rewind) and man, it was great to see football starting again, and with a very impressive W. I was expecting a W throughout the week and Miami is one of our only 'easy' opponents in my opinion; they got 11 wins after playing the AFC West, NFC West, and a Brady-less Patriots team. Not an impressive feat at all and I think they might be exposed this upcoming season, especially with the brutal schedule they have.

I am going to post more thoughts on the game tomorrow, but I just have to jot down a few things right now.

-Ryan needs to work on his downfield accuracy. I know he missed a couple of throws near the beginning of the game and season, but hopefully he can hit mid season form. He missed 2 for sure TDs to White and Gonzalez and another 2 difficult, but TD, throws to Norwood and White. Ryan was money in the middle of the field and short throws; his ball placement was nearly perfect on all those throws so the receiver could get some YAC.

-Tony G. is rigged. The sequence of him breaking off his route after noticing the blitz, shrugging off a defender, and outrunning defenders for the TD was absolutely amazing to watch. Seeing him make catches over the middle of the field and on 3rd down is the reason we got him and he will make a difference throughout the season. A minor concern of mine is how much Ryan will look for Gonzalez throughout the season. I hope he doesn't lock onto him too much and spreads the ball to the clearly capable Jenkins and White.

-The front 7. Wow. I was going to write an in depth post about how the 09 defense compares to the 08 offense in terms of breakout potential, and though we may not be there yet, the season opener was very reassuring. The defense forced 4 turnovers on a team that committed 13 over the course of last season. The defense limited the QB to a measly 6.1 YPA. Check out these individual statistics:

Its nice to see other players on defense making an impact like that. Kroy and Peterson seemed possessed during that game and were everywhere.

btw ATL, that is one badass avatar. As soon as that play happened, I thought it would make a great gif to showcase the awesomeness that is John Abraham. My jaw dropped a little bit when he did that to Long.

__________________"He's the leader of the next great class of NFL players." - John Elway on Matt Ryan

Dude i really dont like Jake Delhomme and hope we can make his time on the feild sunday a nightmare.

I really want to smack the panthers in the mouth this weekend, im after a huge day from Turner and Norwood, 100 plus yards to Roddy including a looong TD off the play action, a sack each to Jamaal and Chauncy and a pick 6 to Chris Houston

Falcons 31-7"drive home safely...atlanta wins"

...here is a game that might be a trap though, like Denver last year, but if we show up with our heads straight then look out...Matt Ryan left a few big TD throws out of the feild last week against a very good defense

If the same run defense shows up from last week, I think we could be okay in terms of containing the Panthers offense. The D did a relatively good job of swarming to the ball and penetrating the offensive line to blow up run plays. We gave up 4.3 YPC, which is .6 yards less than last year. Hopefully BVG and Mike Smith will have a scheme to be able to stop the run AND Steve Smith, a threat that the Phins didn't have.

I am curious to see how the middle of the Panthers defense is after the loss of the starting NT. I am sure Turner is hungry and wants to get going; hopefully he can take advantage of Panthers middle. Same with Roddy White and winning the 1v1 match ups (which he does) and having the ball get to him accurately (come on Ryan).

__________________"He's the leader of the next great class of NFL players." - John Elway on Matt Ryan